Our wooden toys make perfect gifts for “truckers” young and old.
Video Rating: 5 / 5
Making a Wooden Top with a bandsaw, drillpress and a few sanding tools. This toy will be sure to delight young ones just as it must have done many years ago for our grandparents. Project originally designed for junior high shop students. High quality video avalable from my website CatchMyMemories.com
Where do you start with buying a learning toy for a child?
Are you the harassed Uncle or Auntie wondering what to buy a niece or nephew? Are you a puzzled Mum or Dad wondering what toy may connect with your child and develop them further?
Truth be told there are simply too many toys for parents to choose from and guess what the parents choice is typically narrowed by advertisers and peer pressure.
Look at every Christmas, there is typically a mad stampede for the en-vogue toy of choice, which inavriably ends-up in the obscure never-never land of the back of the wardrobe once the novelty wears off.
Another factor is are those buying presents actually that bothered whether a toy is going to have the right benefit for the child? My guess and experience is not, but you may disagree.
Do the likes of Argos, Woolworths and Toys R Us and the like actually give people the right choices? Or are mass marketed, mass produced, easy win, easy buy toys with attractive packaging co-ersing people into making an impulse purchase.
Have you ever tried asking a member of staff on whether a specific toy would be good for a childs reading, or writing or arithmitec skills? They haven’t a clue and subsequently a child is then in the hands of the gods.
Unfortunately this is endemic of society and the fast speedy world in which we live in which everything must be done at a pace. Thankfully there are a number of stores which do care about children and that do care about what toys they play with.
Traditional toys, wooden toys, retro toys, learning toys, educational toys call them what you like, they still have a place in homes up and down the UK, it is just a pity that so many people do not get to know about these stores.
I have purchased many of these ‘traditional toys’ but not from the big high street stores, I have always found the time to be purposeful about certain toy purchases. That is not to say that I do not enjoy a visit to Toys R Us? Of course I do, all that fun in one place. All I am saying is don’t expect to find toys that will make use of your child’s imagination and nurture their learning.
My favourite Toy Shops include Mulberry Bush Online Toy Shop which is great for Traditional Toys and Hamleys which is an absolute Aladdins cave!
Children are learning even before they are born. Every event or experience they have is educational and this is why it is important for them to have access to play facilities and toys that will make a positive contribution to their ongoing learning. Play activities contribute towards a child’s educational development in many ways including:
Todays toy shops are full of the latest whizzy electronic toys. Many are advertised as being educational but are really simply attention grabbing. Tests have shown that humans are predisposed to pay attention to rapidly changing events, loud and unusual sounds and the like. Many modern toys exploit these predispositions with loud, noise-making flashing toys that will grab the attention of any youngster but may actually provide limited educational value.
The right educational toys will be stimulating and fun to play with rather than simply being another form of entertainment. And the right educational toy for a baby is obviously a lot different to the educational toy that will stimulate a 10 year old.
Babys and infants need things to look at, to touch, to shake, rattle and roll. Varied colours, varied textures, varied sounds and varied behaviours will all provide immense enjoyment and stimulation to an infant and they will be learning whilst having fun. For example the Baby and Blankie is a beautifully made developmental toy for babies that won the Good Toy Guide Gold Award.
Toddlers in the 1 to 2 year age range are getting to grips with language and associations with the physical world. They like to stack things, build things up and then knock them down again. The baby walker is a well known traditional toy that is loved by toddlers taking their first wobbly steps. Equipped with a cargo of assorted bricks that allow the child to stack and build and knock down whilst encouraging creativity and achievement.
As they grow, toddlers begin to try and emulate the adults around them. They will enjoy dressing up, role play games and adopting personas such as a fireman, postman, nurse or doctor. They will also derive enjoyment from problem solving, puzzle games, building kits and fantasy play.
Many of us will remember having a toy castle when we were children. Building the castle encourages children’s language skills development and creativity as the child creates their own story, imagining their castle occupied by knights and princesses, fighting off dragons and invaders.
From a very early age children will enjoy creating things by drawing, painting, gluing and colouring in. As they grow their drive to create becomes increasingly sophisticated. They will want to have a go at all sorts of creative play, from painting pictures to building a volcano. Luckily there is no shortage of creativity toys from simple sets of crayons and colouring books to bead jewellery and flower gardens.
Don’t be deceived by the hype and advertising of modern, supposedly educational toys. Many have limited educational value and are actually entertainment devices that provide little stimulation or opportunities for learning. There are many traditional toys that make ideal, traditional gifts providing a valuable educational experience for growing children.
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